It wouldn’t be a celebration without some amazing giveaways, and it couldn’t be easier to join in! To be in with the chance to win the ENTIRE RELEASE make sure to comment on the Pinkfresh Studio release blog post, and for another chance, comment on the Pinkfresh Studio Youtube release video.
There are also TEN $25 gift cards up for grabs, and the winners for these will be drawn from the comments from the blog hop stops. So basically the more you hop and comment, the bigger your chance of winning! And who wouldn’t love to win some spending money in the Pinkfresh Studio shop??
The winners will be announced on the Pinkfresh Giveaway winner page, on the 27th of December, and make sure you check that page and claim your prize within 2 weeks. Now with all that out of the way, let’s get to my two little cards.
I know… last month I only had one card, and this month I only have two. I’m still struggling with the after-effects of my bad bout of Covid, and then having to move house before I was even close to recovered? To say I’ve been pushed to my limit isn’t far off. Imagine having to oversee a house being packed up, deep cleaned and inspected before moving out, then doing a long drive to the new house, the next day was move-in day and it was FULL SPEED ahead all day, all while being very sick and not feeling with it? I was pretty much knocked out and the next two days was spent in a foggy haze of boxes everywhere, not being able to find anything, being in pain and feeling extra awful… Even now, a month on, I am still not even close to being 100% and honestly, the fact I haven’t completely and utterly lost my mind in this process? It is pushing this one up there with some of my top achievements ever. Ever.
Let’s talk about this leaf. It is actually so stunning on it’s own, I decided to not use the coordinating layering stencils for this card, and instead went the Solid Hot Foil Plate route and foiled the negative piece as well. Because why not?
I created a white-on-white background for these pieces, to give some interest but not take away any attention from the gorgeous leaves themselves. One of my favorite diecuts for this sort of look is the Simply Diamonds one. I find it versatile and elegant.
Another fab addition to the Pinkfresh range is now word hot foil AND diecuts, oh yes! So they will come in a pack together, the hot foil plate in the gold colour and the diecut in the silver colour. Genius! And who doesn’t need a good Happy Birthday sentiment, right?
For this card I hot foiled the Happy Birthday in Rainbow foil! It looks fabulous. It really does. Much better in real life than in most of the pictures, naturally. I also layered it up with a couple of diecut pieces, to raise it up a bit. The leaves are trimmed and tucked behind the sentiment.
Not that I ever need an excuse, but I finished off the card with lots of Glacier jewels. If you can’t go nuts with bling-a-ling for birthdays, when can you?
So that’s card No1, now onto card No2!
Here I used the Detailed Leaf hot foil again, but added some colour to it with the layering stencils. In a rainbow, of course. As well as another negative foiled leaf.
On this card, I used the negatives from the Simply Diamonds cover plate too, to keep waste to a minimum. Plus it adds a fab element to a background, so win-win. The negative bits didn’t go on perfectly straight, try crafting with a cotton candy brain and cold hands. It’s not easy, nope!
To cover up the wonkiness, I used another new hot foil addition: The Nested Rectangles, and they come with coordinating diecuts too, so you can cut them out and use as frames for your images.
Again, I used the Polished Brass foil for these, to coordinate with the leaves.
I used a sentiment from the Detailed Leaf stamp set, which I heat embossed in gold, to finish off the card. It’s layered up with another two pieces, that I cut out with the coordinating diecut. A tiny… small-ish.. perhaps generous in someone else’s eyes, smattering of Sparkling Champagne pearls were the finishing touch for this card.
With that, I’m done for today. I must mention that I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. If you shop using these links, I might get a small commission from the company directly, and it doesn’t ever cost you a penny extra. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with links, I really appreciate the support and encouragement.
It’s probably my last post before the end of 2021. Before I go into details about the card, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a big huge THANK YOU to Pinkfresh Studio, Kinnari, Lea and Heather for having had me on the Pinkfresh blog team for the last six months! I have absolutely LOVED it, and I hope I have brought some inspiration to you all during this time.
As there are only a few days left of 2021, and I did catastrophically badly with sending Christmas cards, I thought I’d focus on a New Year card today. With sparkles of course. I did turn my card into an edge-to-edge shaker and filled it with some flat-ish sequins, star shapes and glitter, but if you want to keep it simple, just add some Jewels. Or not. Not everyone is as obsessed with the bling and sparkle as I am.
First of all, you are going to want to grab a fun set of layering stencils, I picked the Layered Sunburst Stencils, and your fave colours of ink. I have, probably unsurprisingly, gone for a bit of a rainbow again, with the help of Sunshine,Bubble Gum, Candy Violet,Summer Showers and Aquamarine inks. With these five inks you can get the impression of even more colours, by blending them together.
With the first two layers of the stencils I have just gone around with the colours in the same spot, using blending brushes. With the last layer, I used an iridescent glitter gel to add some fun sparkle. While this was drying I got the Solid Hot Foil plate out and used one of the left over foils I had used with the Perfect Sentiments: Holiday hot foil plate. I couldn’t wait to give this a try, and oh boy, it did not disappoint!
I did the whole sheet while I was on a roll, and then used the coordinating diecut to cut them all out. With a bit of clever placing, I cut out another three pieces of the Happy New Year piece and layered these up. Then I popped the reversed hot foiled Happy New Year on top. This was adhered to the card smack in the middle.
I could have left it here, but did I? Nope. I decided to make it an edge-to-edge shaker and wrapped a Shaker Pocket, from Tonic Studios, around the card, added some chunky glitter, some flat sequins and silver star shapes from Studio Katia to it and sealed it up. The chunky glitter is really sticking to the pocket right over the Happy New Year, so it might be an idea to use an anti-static tool over the sentiment if you decide to try this.
Overall, I love how this turned out, and how fun it is with a shaker card. I don’t make that many, but who knows? Maybe that will change. Need to get my hands on more of those shaker pockets first though!
Thanks for stopping by the blog today, have a wonderful New Years Eve and here’s to a much better 2022!
Today I’m hopping along with the Pinkfresh Studio design team and friends to celebrate the September release. You should have come here from the amazing Emily Mydlowski, an actual in real life crafty friend of mine!! I’m the last stop on the hop, but if you want to hop along, the Pinkfresh Studio blog is the next/first stop.
Well, what can I say? It’s another fabulously floral release and I’m sure many of you are going to be going as gaga over it as I have been since I saw it. You might ask yourself how many floral stamps you need, and I have too, believe me. However, with every release I add another one (or two.. three… sometimes more) to my fave list. Another thing I am SUPER DUPER EXCITED about is the solid hot foil plate!! Such a genius idea by the one and only Heather Hoffman herself! No more wasted foil!
My profession, before I stopped working, was a florist, and I absolutely LOVED it. Even a stressful day was wonderful because I was surrounded by flowers and got to create bouquets and floral arrangements all day. Best job ever. One of my all time favourite flowers is the peony, so when I saw the Lush Peonies set I had to use it pronto. I mean, I H-A-D to, it felt like it was the law, basically.
I love the genius idea with the layering stencils, and the coordinating diecut. To me, it also makes the set more versatile, as it gives peeps who might not be confident with their colouring the option of adding colour effortlessly (not to mention fast!) to the image. Or even on it’s own. You don’t actually need the outline stamps, it does give a softer look when you use the stencils on their own. The diecut is a must in my book though, a fussy cutter I am not! Nope, no, not doing it unless I really, REALLY have to.
Naturally, I couldn’t just do one card. Oh no, that would be far too easy. I did no less than seven panels, because heck, I was on a roll. It’s like I think I will be cursed if I only do one or two! I’ve also recently cracked the hot foil thing, that eluded me for ages, and now I can’t stop! I have the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil system.
So my first two cards are done by using the Lush Peonies Layering Stencils only. These are true one-layer cards, which isn’t usual for me at all. *pats self on the back* I used yellows, pinks and greens for them both, with Lemon Whip and Sunshine for the yellow flowers, Grassy Knoll and Key Lime for the leaves and a touch of Ballet Slipper for the small flowers and middles of the big ones.
On the pink card I used left over Sparkling Rose as the first layer, and then a good inking of the same colour for the details. Mint and Grassy Knoll for the leaves and a touch of Sunshine for the small yellow flowers and middles of the big ones.
Gold foil on the yellow one and Rose Gold on the pink card, and I must admit that I absolutely love that little touch! They don’t even need anything else, in my opinion. And that’s saying something coming from a chronic over-sequinizer/over-embellisher!
The next two cards are done with the Lush Peony Layering Stencils again, by mixing yellows and pinks to create a more peachy look. One is more pink than peach, but that’s because of the level of ink on the second layer.
This is another fun thing about stencils! You can get such different results by changing up/adding/mixing colours! I love that so much.
On these I used the Lush Peonies outline stamp, and heat embossed it in Rich Gold on the more pinky one, and Rose Gold on the more peachy one. I didn’t manage to line up the stamp perfectly on the pinky one, but I don’t actually think it matters too much to be honest. It adds to the whimsical, romantic style.
So both these cards also got a hot foiled Celebrate, but these were done on white card stock and cut out with the coordinating diecut. These were then added to the cards, but instead of doing them both the same way, I turned one of the panels upside down to give a bit of a different look. They work both ways, actually. One was in Rose Gold and one was done in Matte Gold.
The last two cards are more elaborate for sure. Hot foiling, die cutting, layering, ink blending, stacking, heat embossing and stamping… it’s pretty much all going on.
First off I used the Chevron Hot Foil plate with Rose Gold foil on white card stock, for a background. This was trimmed down and adhered to a white card base. That foil is a real nightmare to photograph, but I have added loads to give you different angles to give you the idea of how it really looks.
The flowers are done with the Lush Peonies Layering Stencils, in rich pinks, Sparkling Rose and Bubble Gum, with a touch of Sunshine for the small flowers and middles of the big ones. The leaves are done in Mint, and I used it for both layers. I just made sure I let it dry in between so it didn’t melt into the first layer.
The last card is also stacked up a lot, both the floral image itself and the background. The striped background was made by cutting out Stripes of Soft Stone card stock from Gina K, and glueing these down onto white card stock. This was then trimmed down and had foam tape added to the back of it, before that was added to a white card base.
To say this is a fat card is not an exaggeration. This will definitely need to be hand delivered! The final touch was a silver hot foiled Celebrate, that was also cut out using the coordinating diecut.
Phew! Told you I was on a roll! And I still have another panel left to finish too, but I will let you get going. I’ve been prattling on for ages, and you have hopping to do to be in with a chance to win one of TEN $25 gift card along the blog hop stops, AND the full release by commenting on the Pinkfresh Studio blog post.
You can also check out their YouTube release video and comment there for another chance to win the entire release! Make sure to check the GIVEAWAY WINNER page after Oct 5th, which is when the winners will be posted. You have 2 weeks to claim your prize
So many prizes to win, and don’t forget to check Instagram tomorrow for an Instagram hop, where you can win even more! Pinkfresh is such a wonderful and generous company, and I’m so grateful to be on the design team. I did receive all these goodies for free, for full transparency, but I don’t think anyone can argue that they don’t inspire me, right?
I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. If you shop using my links, I get a small commission from Pinkfresh directly, at absolutely zero cost to you, so thank you in advance if you use mine. I really appreciate the support and continued encouragement every commission give me.
Until Oct 3rd, you can get free shipping in the US if you spend over $75 with the code SEPTSHIPUSA or get $5.50 off international shipping, on orders over $75, with the code SEPTSHIPINTL.
Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you found some inspiration here with me. If you did, please do tag me in photos you post to Instagram using @erica_cacacraft so I can see your cards and creations! It’s absolutely thrilling to know that someone was inspired by little old me.
Today’s post is all about ink blending extravaganza, using the lovely and totally dreamy Wintry Forest layering stencils and yummy inks from Pinkfresh Studio!
I absolutely love stencils because they are so versatile and affordable. Stencils that can cover several occasions also add to their allure. At first glance you might think that this Wintry Forest stencil isn’t going to be meant for anything but holiday cards, buuuuuut I’m hoping I will make you see that it’s actually rather versatile.
Ok, full disclosure, I DID end up using foiled sentiments from the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set, because I have finally cracked foiling after it eluded me for ages. It took watching many videos by Yana Smakula and Channin Pelletier to get to grips with it, so if you are struggling like I was, know that there is a knack to it and don’t give up!
Having said that, these backgrounds would work for all sorts of occasions, like thinking of you, sympathy, retirement, masculine birthday and nature lovers birthdays.
Instead of going for the expected look with greens for the Wintry Forest stencils, I went purple, blue and then fiery with yellows, oranges, red and fuchsias. I also added a generous splattering of gold on all three, because I love that as a finishing touch.
For the first card I used all the purples, from light to dark, Soft Lilac, Lavender ,Candy Violet and Regal Kiss. The last layer is LOTS of Regal Kiss for that deep, dark purple colour.
Because I love blues I also used the Morning Sky blues: Sky Blue, Summer Shower, Seaside and Storm. These are just dreamy. On this one I used Sky Blue for the first two layers, very soft on the first and a bit more saturated for the second layer.
For the last card I used Lemon Whip and Sunshine, Apricot and Persimmon,Coral Reef and Berrylicious, and finally Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss. I used the lighter colour first, and then added a little bit of depth and intensity with the darker colour after. On this one, I didn’t line up the stencils according to the markings either, to leave a little bit more white towards the bottom so you could still see that there were different layers.
When I had finished the ink blending, I popped them, one by one, into a box and splattered some gold watercolour on them. After these had dried, I trimmed the blue and the purple down a little and adhered them to white card bases.
The sentiments I picked out are done with both rose gold and gold foil, using the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set. I also cut out some extra pieces using the coordinating diecut, and layered the sentiments up for a little bit of dimension.
The purple card got a rose gold foiled Merriest Christmas. This one is layered up with two more pieces to pop it up a little.
The blue one got a Warmest Wishes in gold foil. This one is also popped up with two pieces.
The fiery forest got a rose gold foiled Merry & Bright. This one has three pieces for more depth and dimension. This one isn’t trimmed down, but I probably should have done that. However, I had adhered the sentiment already, so I couldn’t trim it. Oops.
Ok, that’s it from me for today, I hope you enjoyed this post too, and will try an unexpected colour combination yourself with your stencils. You never know how it will turn out until you give it a go!
As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post at no extra cost to you. Shopping with affiliate links does not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will pay me a small commission as a thank you for directing you to them. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of this blog, my YouTube channel and Instagram. A little bit will be put aside to renovations of my forever craft room as well, as we are in the process of buying our forever home, which is so exciting! Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links, I really do appreciate it so much!
It’s the last Friday of the month which means a new Stamp Club release from Tonic Studios! The next stop on the hop is Channin Pelletier and you should have come here from Janette, but if you get lost, the full hop lineup is at the bottom of this post and also over on Maria’s blog.
Another big PLUS with this bundle is that it coordinates with the Backgrounds and Borders bundle! Well, it’s good for those of us who have it already, as it’s sold out… but hold up! This news just in: It’s being restocked today!!
The Stamp Club is not a subscription, it’s simply a small monthly release that contains stamps and dies. These can only be bought together, but there is no pressure to buy it every month, nor will you find money going out of your account automatically if you forget to cancel. You can pick and chose which ones you want to add to your collection.
Of course it wouldn’t be a celebration without a giveaway. One lucky winner will win a £50/$50 Giftcard to Tonic Studios and the Patterns & Prints bundle! All you have to do is leave a comment on the stops along the hop to be in with a chance to win. The more you comment, the better your chances!
As it’s Tonic´s birthday week, you will also get a free gift when you order the Patterns & Prints bundle! Quite appropriately it’s a Happy Birthday set, and this will go out with every order of the bundle, as long as there is stock. Make sure to order quickly if you want this fab set.
For my cards I have channeled my inner CardBomb aka Maria Willis herself! I got some Distress Oxide sprays out and made some colourful backgrounds to begin with. A couple of slim line panels of water colour card stock were placed inside an old box and sprayed with Mustard Seed, Crackling Campfire, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina and Salty Ocean.
The two panels are similar to each other, due to the colours and the order of adding them, but I finished them off in different ways. On one I used some Distress Micro Glaze to bring out the colours a bit, and on the other one I heat embossed Halo glitter over the entire thing. Because, you know, sparkles…
Naturally I had to use word diecuts on the sparkly panel and the ones from the Prints & Patterns can spell out different sayings. The ones I picked, put together says You’re an amazing friend. The letters themselves I put aside, for another card.
On the back of this one I adhered a dark grey piece of card stock, this one is Storm Cloud from Lawn Fawn. It gives a softer look than black card stock, and I love it.
Of course I did not waste the letters that were the “leftovers” from the first card, these I adhered to a card base I had used one of the pattern stamps with black ink on. Super simple, yet with that stamped background its so much more interesting that with a plain white card base, right?
When I did the spraying for the backgrounds, I did actually do a really small piece first. Almost like a test-run, you know? It turned out fun too, so I did use that one for a third, bonus card.
This was already the perfect size for an A2 card base, so I simply glued it to a white one. To finish off the sentiment, I popped up the ´amazing´ by cutting out three white pieces and layering these up, and topping it with an amazing cut out of black card stock. I did add a few sequins to this one. Even with the colourful panel, I did feel like it needed a little something else. What can I say? I’m a chronic over-sequinizer.
That’s it from me for today, but before I go I’ll just mention that I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post for your convenience. Shopping with affiliate links does not cost you anything extra ever, the company it’s affiliated to pays me a small commission directly, thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links! I really appreciate the support!
Now it’s time to hop on and the full blog hop list can be found below, and the next stop on the hop is the utterly amazing Channin!
May is the month of Mental Health Awareness and it’s high time that the stigma around mental health is removed, so that everyone who has been affected, and WILL BE affected, can get treatment.
Unfortunately mental health issues are so very common, as many as 1 in 5 are suffering from some form of if, from phobias, to anxiety, to eating disorders, to panic attacks, to OCD, to chemical imbalances just to mention a few. The umbrella that covers mental health issues is a very, very big one and it’s sadly very underfunded.
Over on Instagram there is a hop going on now, where lots of crafty people are banding together to spread awareness and hopefully help others feel less alone in their struggles with mental health. You can find the hop by following this graphic.
Today’s post is very uncomfortable, probably for you as a reader and me for talking about difficult stuff and I’d like to make a trigger warning announcement right now: I’ll be talking about bullying, and the resulting issues that comes with that. I’ll also be talking about my struggles with depression and obsessive compulsive tendencies. As I have never been diagnosed officially with OCD I’m going to call it ‘my obsessive compulsive tendencies’ rather than actual, diagnosed OCD.
I also made a video, and I ask that you be kind when you watch it. Anyone who leaves a negative or derogatory comment will be permanently banned from my YouTube channel. It took a lot of courage to share all this, and it’s only part of it. There is so much more, and I simply will not let anyone shame me, or anyone else, for sharing what they have/are going through.
My story is complicated, and long. So long. From almost as early as I can remember I have felt anxious, painfully shy and different. As I started school, I almost immediately was singled out by ‘the popular girl’ and she made my life hell for nine straight years.
I made these grungy backgrounds to sort of illustrate how I feel sometimes, on the inside. Outwardly colourful, as I’m also a very positive person (which is such a juxtaposition at times) but with a dark and messy side inside and underneath.
When I look back now, I realise that she wasn’t popular because she was nice, fun to be around and a lovely person. She was popular because of her family’s social standing in the village I grew up in, and she based her own self-importance on that, and she thought she was VERY important. In actual fact, she was mean, spoilt and downright nasty.
So much so, that one day her best friend decided to give her a taste of her own medicine and banded all of the other girls in the class together to freeze her out, like she had done to so many of us. I vividly remember that day, and when I was told she was crying in the bathroom after one day of being treated like i had been treated for years, I finally found the courage to tell my other classmates that I had spent many, MANY days crying in the bathroom because of her and her behaviour towards me. Clearly having had no idea about this, some were sympathetic but things didn’t really get much better after that. She got her power back and she kept on misusing it, even after feeling as bad as she made me feel. Even though for her, it was just for one day.
Having seen this, I shrank back even more and tried to make myself so small that she wouldn’t notice me, because surely she wouldn’t pick on me if she didn’t notice me? I also started having thoughts like ‘if I can make it to that spot before that car passes me, it will be ok today’. It’s funny when you look at things from an adult perspective, on things you didn’t understand as a child. Now it’s very obvious to me where a lot of my anxiety, insecurity and impostor syndrome come from, but back then? Those weird thoughts could induce a full-on panic.
On the way home from school I had to cross a river, and there were times I stood on that bridge watching the water flow wondering how long it would take to drown. Looking back on those days I am full of rage that someone managed to make me feel so worthless that I actually were thinking along those lines. The only reason I never did anything stupid like jumping the railing, with the intent of not coming back up, was fear it would hurt, love for my little sister, who was also bullied, and my cat.
It wasn’t until I started at a new school, and met new friends (who actually wanted to be friends with me!) that I started to find some confidence in myself and believing that maybe everything she had told me, sometimes on a daily basis, wasn’t true. I wasn’t stupid, I wasn’t fat and ugly, I wasn’t a waste of space, the clothes I wore didn’t reflect my value as a human being, etc etc.
I decided to use this word die because it says it all, and it’s layered up with white and black card stock, as well as heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
It took a while, but as I spent a year in the US working as an au pair, I really found my feet and let my personality blossom. It turns out that I wasn’t half-bad, after all, people wanted to be friends with me and thought I was fun! Imagine that. After having spent so many years feeling so small and insignificant, it was truly wonderful and that year I spent in the US is still one of the best ones of my life.
After I got back to Sweden, my family unexpectedly imploded. I was 20, but all of a sudden I felt like I was 5. My father walked out on us, with very little indication of what he had planned, and left us in the dust to pick up the pieces. That was extremely traumatic and left us all shell-shocked. I didn’t know how to deal with the onslaught of emotions and responsibilities, so I ran. I’m not proud of it, but I ran. I packed my bags and left, never to move back to Sweden, ever again.
This sudden departure of my father left me with trust issues and a lingering depression, but luckily for me I met The Man that very same year and he did everything in his power to prove to me that he was staying, he was supportive, understanding and patient. Most of all, he simply loved me. Still to this day, some 20+ years later, he’s the same. He’s stood by me through all of my emotional wobbles, my manic cleaning and tidying episodes, all of my depression lows, all of my obsessive tendencies.
The cleaning thing he never really understood, and I have hidden some of the worst from him, which was easy at one point as he worked away from our home during the week and was only home on the weekends. As my trust in him was growing, I entrusted him with more and more of ‘my crazies’ as I call them. Whilst he doesn’t fully understand how cleaning and order could make me feel calm, and would mess with me by moving stuff, he accepts that it’s part of me.
I also added sparkles to the card to represent all the different facets of our personalities. The black sentiment almost disappears but the whole point is that it’s supposed to be a bit difficult to see it. It IS difficult to see that we are loved, especially when we feel unworthy of love.
When I have my depression lows, the first thing that goes is my personal hygiene. Gross as that is, it’s the truth. The next thing that goes is the need for cleaning. As I mention in the video, at one point the cleaning and the cleaning routines were almost the very thing that structured my day. I could feel it getting worse, but I also couldn’t see what the problem was with me wanting to have a clean and tidy home. As my compulsions grew stronger, my lists grew. I had one for things I had to do daily, another for weekly tasks, a third for things that needed to be done once a month, and lastly a list for things that only required doing every three months. These lists were laminated and I’d obsessively tick off the things I had done, and then calculate how long it would take me to achieve the rest. There were days where I had to stay up late to get it all done, but going to sleep without having ticked off all the things? Close to impossible.
My obsessive compulsive tendencies started out with a traumatic incident in my life, and ironically, it was another major tragedy that helped me overcome some of it. When we lost both of our dogs within six weeks of each other, I stopped functioning for a while. All I could do to get through the day was by one breath to the next, the grief was so bone deep and devastating that I felt like I was drowning in it.
It took me a little while to get my head above water again, and when I surfaced I realised a lot of time had passed and I had done absolutely no cleaning whatsoever. That need for it had disappeared almost like a switch had been flicked. Like my brain had short circuited and been somewhat reset. I couldn’t hear those voices telling me I ‘had to do this or that, this way, not that way’, over the deafening roar of heartache and grief. Those very voices that had made me believe that if I did what they said, nothing bad would happen. Well, talk about a wake up call that that was a big fat lie.
Don’t give up on someone who’s resisting your love and support. Even when someone says ‘I don’t want it’ on the inside they could be screaming ‘please don’t go, don’t leave me alone, I need love but I’m scared’.
I still have some of these obsessive compulsive tendencies today, I’m not going to lie. I am a bit of a basket case some days, for sure. If I’m feeling stressed, anxious or sad I will very often clean and tidy stuff. I think the difference now is that those voices aren’t telling me something bad will happen or someone will die if I don’t do this, it’s almost like a trade ‘if you do this, I will tamp down on those anxiety feelings for you’. I don’t even know if that makes any sense to anyone other than me, but there you have it. It does help most of the time, and those times it doesn’t help, at least I will have accomplished something. That’s how I try looking at it these days.
For instance, recently I have had a lot of stress from a family situation, and at first it left me feeling like nothing matters so why bother? I spent three days on the sofa with my chicas and books, and then all of a sudden, I cleaned the kitchen until it was spotless. The next day I moved on to the bathrooms. We have two, so there is always something that can be done there. Admittedly, the levels of anxiety I have had about filming the video for this Mental Health Awareness hop, meant I needed to clean those bathrooms two days in a row, but ok. Sometimes I wonder if it’s the physical, as well as mental, tiredness I need, rather than the order? It’s really too bad I’m not focusing these energies on doing squats. I’d have buns of steel!
Like everyone else, my issues are very personal to me, and everyone is affected differently. Just because someone else has the same issue as you do, doesn’t mean it affects you both the same way, which is why understanding and acceptance are so important. By sharing my story, and opening the door to my inner crazy, I’m hoping that it will help someone out there feel less alone. Know that there are people out there who know what you are going through, and how you feel.
If you are struggling, please know that there is help. Know that people care. You are NOT alone. Ignore those voice that tell you it’s not worth it, why bother, nobody cares etc. They are wrong, they lie and they do not get to tell you you are not worthy, loved and needed in this world. You are not alone.
So much love, and big hugs if you made it all the way to this point.
Today is release day for Alex Syberia’s March release of digital stamps, and as always, she has some amazing designs for us!
I started out with the Fabulous Floral slim line flowers and printed it on vellum. The upside with having a laser printer is that I can foil the images, which always looks fab! This one I foiled with white Minc foil, using my Minc machine.
To add some colour, I turned it over and used Copics, on the back. When using this technique, you do have to add quite a lot of colours, or strong ones, in order for it to show through the vellum.
When the colouring was done, I gently wrapped the vellum piece over a white slim line card base, and glued down the sides to the back so it wouldn’t show.
To finish this off, I used a discontinued, but loved, word die from Neat & Tangled that says ‘love you’ in a gorgeous font. The paper I used is homemade shimmer paper! You can make your own by smearing Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios on card stock, let it dry and voilá!
I cut out another two layers and added these together with liquid glue, before adhering the whole thing to the card. Layering word dies up is such a simple but effective way of taking your card designs up a notch, with little effort. This word die is sold out in a LOT of places, and the only shop I found it actually in stock is Foiled Fox, so if you want it, GRAB IT FAST!!
To celebrate the release the design team are doing an instagram hop, where you can see some fantastic inspiration and hop along for a chance to win a gift voucher to the Alex Syberia shop! I have seen some of the cards, and they are AH-mazing! You are not going to want to miss it.
You can of course use skip straight to Alex’s shop if you already know you are going to want to get some of these for yourself.
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and will enjoy some of these new stamps for yourself.
For these I have used the Seamless Floral Pattern stencils, with two very different colour schemes and finishing touches, to show how versatile these stencils are.
I’ve used a light spray of Pixie Spray on the stencils, but if you don’t have that, there are marks for card bases sized 5.5″x4.25″ which makes it really easy to line the layers up.
I have used my Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes for this ink blending session, where I usually use Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios. I’ve let them all get a bit too inky from previous ink blending sessions, and wanted to make sure that there was no contamination from any other ink pads for this project. A spa day for the brushes are on the horizon for sure.
It’s somewhat difficult to explain in words how I did the ink blending over the different layers, so if you prefer to watch the how-to, hop on over to my YouTube channel. I have basically gone over the same area on each one of the stencils with the same colours, to create a soft pastel rainbow look. With the last two I have gone in with darker inks, as mentioned above, and the final layer I used Moonstone Glimmer Paste from Nuvo.
I love the look of the copper heat embossing as a final touch. Because I hadn’t waited for the ink to dry 100%, there was some stray bits of heat embossing powder in places where I didn’t really want it, but oh well. It did sort of add to the vintage soft look I was after.
I finished this one by trimming down the panel and adhering it to a brown textured card stock from Lawn Fawn, and that whole thing got adhered to a card base. The last thing I did was stamping up a sentiment from the Through The Trees stamp set, with Gathered Twigs ink, directly on the background panel.
The first panel was also trimmed down, but this one was adhered to a black panel. Before I adhered this one to the card base, I actually used the ‘awesome’ die cut on it in the middle. It’s going to be covered up by the flower panel anyway so why waste that paper? I did cut out both the word and the shadow bit, and also cut out one more shadow part in white. These are layered up with black, white and then the black ‘awesome’ on top. The reason I did this is to add a little bit of interest with the black at the bottom.
A sentiment needs something more than just ‘awesome’ so I stamped up part of a sentiment from Thankful For Friends stamp set, on a super skinny banner. The original sentiment says Our Friendship Is Amazing, and now with the diecut it says ‘Our Friendship Is Awesome’.
Well, that’s it from me for today but I will be back tomorrow. Yep, again. Sorry, not sorry!
I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. Some of these products were sent to me as part of being a guest designer, but don’t worry, I only ever create with stuff that sparks my creativity. And I don’t think there is any doubt that this release has my mojo humming with excitement. Oh boy.. that kind of came out a bit wrong, didn’t it? But you know what I mean, I hope!
Right, before I put my foot in my mouth again, I’m going to sign off but I’ll see you soon again.
Today’s cards are another couple of slim line cards. It seems I can’t stop, and won’t stop, with these for a while. Oh well, things could be worse, right?
To make these I started out by cutting panels of white card stock with the Slim Line Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. On the smaller rectangles, I adhered strips of coloured cardstock to create rainbows. The card stock I’ve used for these is from Lawn Fawn, and you can get it in a handy Rainbow Pack if you don’t want to invest in 10 sheets of each colour.
I’ve used a few different diecuts to make the sentiments, and the big Hi Die and Friend Die, are from The Stamp Market. The Happy Birthday is from MFT Stamps. Both the Friend and the Happy Birthday have been cut out of white card stock a few times and layered up.
The Happy Birthday one was then heat embossed with Glisten Changer to make it sparkly. This particular one has been retired, but HERE you can find a really good alternative.
The Friend one I heat embossed with Clear Gloss to create that puffy sticker look. I love doing my word diecuts like this, it just adds something extra!
For the clouds I have used some Stitched Cloud Dienamics from MFT Stamps, on white card stock. For a little while longer you can find the EXACT ONES at Ellen Hutson!
These I have jazzed up by heat embossing them with the WOW! Changers Texture and Glisten. The way these powders work is that you can change your embossing powder to either be sheen, glittery or texture. All you have to do is mix your choice of powder with whatever effect you want.
I haven’t used the Texture one before so I decided to use it for one of the cards! For the second one I used Glisten, which I am obsessed with. Both powders are mixed with Clear Gloss and the pieces were dabbed with the Embossing Pad, covered in the powder mix and then set with the Heat Tool.
With these cloud bits done, I glued them to the rainbow panels. I did have to use both tape runner and Lawn Fawn glue because of the heat embossing, and I also left them under flat weights to make sure they dried flat.
On the first one I glued down the Happy Birthday with Glossy Accents, as I ran out of my Lawn Fawn Glue Tubes!! SEND MORE STAT!!!!
The second card was finished with the big Hi and the Friend diecuts. The Hi I layered up with fun foam, cut with the diecut, to add height. The Friend I added on top of the Hi and with that, the card was done.
I actually managed to make a bonus card with the outline from the Hi die too. It seemed a shame to waste it, when I had a load of rainbow card bases done already.
Using a Nuvo fine tip glue pen, I adhered the outline Hi to a card base and ta-da! Another card done!!
On my YouTube channel you can also find a video of the making of the slim line cards, if you fancy seeing the Changer powders in action.
I’ve used compensated affiliate links in this post. What that means is these links goes to shops I’m affiliated with, and as a thank you for sending you to them, I will get a small commission directly from them if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra at all, but it really makes a difference to me if you do use these links. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and keeping my Instagram fresh, fun and inspiring for you, so thank you if you choose to support me like this. I really appreciate the support!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work
Welcome to the “Happy Harvest Hop from Kat Scrappiness & Ink on 3!” We are thrilled you could join us on this blog & Instagram hop celebration! We will be sharing darling fall cards featuring Kat Scrappiness amazing dies and sprinkles and Ink On 3’s fabulous inks and darling fall stamps. Come hop with us for inspiration and of course prizes!
The hop is from November 5th at 10am CST and will end on November 8th at midnight. We will have 4 x $15 winners!! 2 from randomly chosen blog posts and 2 from randomly chosen Instagrams so the more you comment the better chance you have.
To participate in the hop giveaway, simply leave a comment on each blog post, follow each DT on Instagram, comment and tag your friends. The more you comment the more chances of winning.
The winners will be announced on the Ink on 3 and Kat Scrappiness blogs & Instagrams on November 10th. You will need to contact us to claim your prize. You can subscribe to our blogs for a notification email on any new blog posts. You will have 7 days to claim your prize.
Thank you for hopping with us and supporting our small businesses!
It is a NO STAMPING card, if you can believe it!! I don’t do those very often, no Siree. I started by using the die on five different pieces of coloured card stock. Because it’s a fall theme, I kept it to yellows, oranges and raspberry pink. I have used Lawn Fawn card stock in Sticky Note, Sunflower, Fake Tan, Canned Pumpkin and Raspberry.
With a bit of cutting and glueing, I layered these up, slightly smaller than the previous frame, so that they overlap and create a very dimensional panel.
To finish off the card, once I had glued the leaf frame to the shimmery background, I cut out the word ‘thanks’ from the Pumpkin Patch coordinating dies.
These letters are cut out of gold glitter card stock, and then adhered to the leaves, rather than the background itself. Doing it this way makes it look like the letters are floating and is a bit different from what I usually do.
Thank you so much for stopping by today, enjoy the rest of the hop and don’t forget to leave a comment here for a chance to win those goodies!
CaCaCraft by Erica 